A witty masterclass from one of my favorite setters – thanks REDSHANK for a delectable offering this Friday morning.
This is one of those puzzles where the solving experience was much like peeling an onion. Seemingly obscure and esoteric at first, the solutions to such clues gradually revealed themselves as layers of other clues were peeled back. Learnt a thing or two as well, and did have to use Google to confirm the parsing for a couple of clues.
FF:10 DD:9
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEABIRD | Diver maybe raised rocks protecting bar mouth (7) |
| RAISED* containing B (Bar, mouth – first character) | ||
| 5 | PEACOCK | Butterfly gives a firm nip on the outside (7) |
| [ A CO (firm) ] inside PECK (nip) | ||
| 9 | TRAIL | Labour needs a victor to follow (5) |
| TRavAIL (labour, without A V [victor] ) | ||
| 10 | CONSTABLE | Beat copper wire frames on street (9) |
| CABLE (wire) containing [ON ST (street)] – clever if somewhat brief misdirection, from “..copper wire..” | ||
| 11 | PROTOZOIC | New zoo to cut reduced cost of tiny animals (9) |
| [ZOO TO]* in PRICe (cost, reduced) | ||
| 12 | PITCH | Sort of pine, soft pine (5) |
| P (soft) ITCH (pine) | ||
| 13 | WINDOW DRESSING | Means to view plaster facade (6-8) |
| WINDOW (means to view) DRESSING (plaster) | ||
| 18 | ORNITHOLOGISTS | Hobbies interest them, or Ulster ministers wasting energy (14) |
| OR NI (ulster) THeOLOGISTS (ministers, wasting energy i.e. without E) – refering to the hobby bird. I thought this was a clever clue too. | ||
| 20 | INCUR | Run into ragged urchin husband neglected (5) |
| URChIN* (without H – husband) | ||
| 22 | VICE VERSA | Poor service in London museum? On the contrary (4,5) |
| SERVICE* in VA (london museum, Victor & Albert museum) | ||
| 24 | TALKING TO | Carpeting’s total shambles without ruler (7-2) |
| TOTAL* outside KING (ruler) | ||
| 25 | TULSA | Start to tour America, taking in large city (5) |
| [ T (start to Tour) USA (america) ] taking in L (large) | ||
| 26 | CONGEAL | Set to screen golf for clubs (7) |
| CONcEAL (screen, wiith G – golf replacing C – clubs) | ||
| 27 | SELVAGE | Train leaves around midnight for border (7) |
| LEAVES* around G (mid-niGht) – new word for me but getable from the clue. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SIT-UPS | Small Russian leader’s pointless climbing exercises (3-3) |
| [ S (small) PUTIn’S (russian leader’s, pointless – without N for north) ], all reversed (climbing) | ||
| 2 | AMAZONIAN | Big merchant, Scottish chap, forest dweller (9) |
| AMAZON (big merchant) IAN (scottish chap) | ||
| 3 | IGLOO | Bunch of schoolgirls erect house up north (5) |
| hidden, reversed in “…schOOLGIrls…” – nice clue !! | ||
| 4 | DOCTOR WHO | It could be worth chopping the same business TV series (6,3) |
| WORTH* in [ DO (same) CO (business) ] | ||
| 5 | PANIC | Latin-American suppresses his terror (5) |
| hisPANIC (latin-american, without ‘HIS’) | ||
| 6 | ANTIPASTI | A lot of chianti, pastis, olives and tapas perhaps (9) |
| hidden in “…chiANTI PASTIs…” | ||
| 7 | ORBIT | Circle late notice Republican sent in (5) |
| OBIT (late notice, obituary) containing R (republican) | ||
| 8 | KNEE HIGH | Stoned after joint not far from the ground (4-4) |
| HIGH (stoned) after KNEE (joint) | ||
| 14 | DETERMINE | Discourage writer’s resolve (9) |
| DETER (discourage) MINE (writer’s, referring to setter) | ||
| 15 | ROOT CROPS | Batsman whips Swedes, say (4,5) |
| ROOT (batsman, joe root) CROPS (whips) – swede here refers to the rubataga, a cross between cabbage and turnip | ||
| 16 | INTER ALIA | Work at airline, among other things (5,4) |
| [AT AIRLINE]* | ||
| 17 | HOLISTIC | Like approach taken by hospital with treatment of colitis? (8) |
| H (hospital) + COLITIS* – semi &lit? | ||
| 19 | GARAGE | A big end and gear repaired here (6) |
| [ A G (biG, end) GEAR ]* – semi &lit? | ||
| 21 | COLON | Panama City officer working his final passage (5) |
| double def; COL (officer, colonel) ON (working) | ||
| 22 | VIGIL | Old poet loses rare watch (5) |
| VIrGIL (old poet, without ‘R’ – rare) | ||
| 23 | VITAL | Group of relatives circulate key (5) |
| hidden, reversed in “…reLATIVes…” | ||
*anagram
Thanks, Turbolegs.
Delectable, indeed – one of my favourites, too, and on top form today.
I started giving ticks and stopped when I found I had eleven – double ones for ORNITHOLOGISTS, VICE VERSA, HOLISTIC and COLON [hilarious! – pity he couldn’t have worked in two more definitions 😉 ]and there could have been more.
[I now have this earworm http://www.bing.com/search?q=24+hours+from+Tulsa&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IENTTR&conversationid=&pc=EUPP_ for the rest of the day – but I’m not complaining. 😉 ]
Huge thanks to Redshank, as always. You and Brendan in the Guardian have given my day a brilliant start.
Enjoyed this, favourite clues are 13, 18 & 22ac for their lovely surfaces Thank you very much Redshank & Turbolegs.
[I’m sharing your ear worm, Eileen!]
I enjoyed this-couldnt see much in the way of themes.
Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
A really entertaining puzzle with great misdirection in a good few of the definitions. Interesting use of the hidden clue three times – one quite obvious, the other two devilishly well hidden.
Thought that COLON was the best of a very good bunch of clues. CONSTABLE was also very good. The PEACOCK butterfly was new learning.
Finished in the NW corner with SEABIRD, the clever AMAZONIAN and the trickiest of the hiddens, IGLOO as the last few in.
Yet another disappointingly [for setter and blogger] few set of comments on this thread. I did try [again ] to direct Guardian solvers here – they miss so many treats.
Eileen @5. I did take your advice from the Guardian blog and did enjoy this puzzle, but when printing it out the numbers in the grid disappeared, so that reminded me why I had given up on the FT some time ago. Here I needed some help parsing CONGEAL but the rest fell into place nicely. Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs.
Thanks all, for stopping by to chime in.
Eileen@5 – I hope the number of comments here is not reflective of the number of folks who have had a go at this treat. In any case, after your comment, I had a go at Brendan at Guardian (I rarely ever try the Guardian except for the prize puzzle once in a while) and sure enough, it was (still is – I am not done yet) a good one to crack.
Regards
TL
Hello, it’s me.
Another wonderful puzzle by Redshank (or whatever you call him at other places).
My heart was beating faster at, in particular, 22ac and 27ac.
If one has ever tried to compile a crossword, it may be clear why.
The fact that 6d (ANTIPASTI) was a bit too obvious couldn’t spoilt the fun.
And fun it was.
Thanks TB – and the inimitable Redshank, of course.
…. couldn’t spoil the fun …. [of course]
Fun puzzle! Only cheated a little, getting better at this.
15D I tooks as a homophone – ROOT CROPS = “weeds”
And of course I had to cheat on the ROOT portion – US Americans think cricket isn’t cricket.
Been travelling and came late to to this but what a tour de force! absolutely brilliant.